My dog of whom I am extremely fond
Has a habit of jumping in the pond.
Then he gets a certain smell
Which I know all too well,
And of which I am not that fond!
(A couple of days ago I took my guide dog Apollo for a walk in Crystal Palace park with my friend and his Rhodesian Ridgeback. Being a Labrador Retriever, Apollo decided that it would be tremendous fun to go swimming in a pond, twice!)
My dear friend whose name is Apollo,
Says, “I’ll lead and you will follow!”.
He likes butchers shops
And juicy lamb chops –
As he’s a typical Labrador is apollo!
There once was a labrador called Trigger
Whose stomach it grew ever bigger.
When they said, “eat less grub!”,
He went down to the local pub,
Where he showed off his beautiful figure!
Yesterday evening I went out for a drink with an old friend. As always in these situations I had with me my guide dog Trigger. On my friend going to the bar to get some much needed liquid refreshment, a gentleman on the table adjacent to mine said words to the effect of,
“Can I feed your dog?”
“No thank you, he gets two meals a day and feeding him encourages begging”, I replied.
“But he’s hungry”, came the response.
“He’s always hungry, that is the nature of dogs”, I said starting to feel exasperated.
“He’s obviously hungry”, my new acquaintance persisted.
At this point my friend returned with the drinks and the conversation with the man on the adjacent table ceased and, shortly afterwards he and his companions left.
While the above incident certainly didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the evening, I was left with a feeling of exasperation as regards self-appointed experts who, in point of fact have absolutely zero knowledge on the subjects they pontificate on. I follow the advice of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) in providing my dog, Trigger with 2 meals a day, together with dog treats on a controlled basis. Trigger is a lab/retriever cross and as anyone who owns or has owned this breed will know they do have a tendency to behave like walking dustbins. One can give a lab a generous helping of food and a minute later he will be looking for more, its just the nature of labs!
This morning Trigger had a severe attack of the runs which now (thankfully) seem to have cleared up. While I have no way of knowing it seems rather a coincidence that this should happen the morning after a fellow pub goer implied Trigger is underfed. I cant help wondering if something wholly inappropriate as regards dog food found it’s way into the stomach of my four legged friend. Be that as it may, I should not be subjected to the no doubt well meaning but wholly ill informed comments of self-appointed experts.
(For a helpful post on how to approach a guide dog please see, http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/microsites/sponsor-a-puppy/blogs/2015/april/ever-wondered-how-to-approach-a-guide-dog-and-their-owner#.V1LTIL5MTIU).
Kevin
Yesterday morning as I stood patiently in line waiting to enter the underground at London’s Victoria station, surrounded by the hussle and bussle of rush hour, I longed to be anywhere other than the capital of this United Kingdom. Well the tumult and the shouting can be put aside for a while as I’m off to Liverpool this evening to spend time with my mum, her partner and my sister, not forgetting Lilley my mum’s black Labrador. I do hope that my guide dog, Trigger doesn’t cause chaos by chasing Lilley around the house but that is, alas I fear to much to wish for!
I will be returning to London on 9 August and it is unlikely that I’ll blog while I’m away. See you all on or around 9 August.
Kevin
K Morris - Poet 